Thursday, January 03, 2008

I'm not one for blogging jokes, but this one is a bit too good to let pass. I received it from one of my Internet spies.

The Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, while visiting a primary school class, found themselves in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asked both men if they would like to lead the discussion of the word "tragedy". So the Rev. Jackson asks the class for an example of a "tragedy".

One little boy stood up and offered, "If my best friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the field and a runaway tractor comes along and knocks him dead, that would be a tragedy."

No," says Jesse, "that would be an accident."

A little girl raised her hand: "If a school bus carrying 50 children drove over a cliff, killing everyone inside, that would be a tragedy."

"I'm afraid not," explains Reverend Al, "That's what we would call a great loss. " The room goes silent. No other children volunteered.

Reverend Al searches the room. "Isn't there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?"

Finally at the back of the room little Johnny raises his hand. In a stern voice he says: "If a plane carrying the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton were struck by a missile and blown to smithereens, that would be a tragedy."

"Fantastic!" exclaims Jackson and Sharpton. "That's right! And can you tell me why that would be a tragedy?"

"Well," says little Johnny, "because it sure as hell wouldn't be a great loss, and it probably wouldn't be an accident either.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

You don't think I'd let you all off without seeing some of them, did you? Those are the Christmas trees at Disney's MGM, Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom theme parks. For some inexplicable reason, I didn't get a picture of the one at Epcot.

As could have been predicted, business owners who have been taking advantage of that particular cheap labor pool are predicting doom and threatening to move business elsewhere, including...wait for it...Mexico.

Now, the funny thing is that the law only targets business that knowingly hire illegals. It requires the use of the Federal "E-Verify" database (which has shown some flaws in testing). As a savvy business owner, it shouldn't be hard to prove you took every reasonable precaution to avoid knowingly hiring an illegal alien. Have them fill out an I-9, get copies of their drivers license, Social Security card, green card and a screen print from your database lookup. Put them in the personnel jacket. You have now covered that important part of your anatomy.

However, that's apparently too difficult, so we have people like Jason LeVecke, who owns a number of burger joint franchises in the state, saying he's going to expand in Texas, rather than Arizona, because "It is too much of a risk for us." With that level of business acumen, you have to wonder if there are any MacDonalds or Burger Kings in the state. If there aren't, a smart move for them would be to expand in Arizona now. You don't have any competition to worry about.

Hm-m-m-m. I think I know how to handle most of the complaints from business. If all of the states followed Arizona's lead, then no US businesses could take advantage of illegal aliens to gain a completive advantage. They could still move operations out of the country, but that's always been possible.

Addressing the politicians' complaints will be more difficult. Medical science hasn't perfected a spine transplant yet.

Happy New Year to one and all. We have returned from The Freehold South, and are in the process of trying to sort out the booty and the dirty clothes. With some luck, normal (well, normal for me, anyway) will resume in a day or two.